Previews

Dinosaur Hunting

A wonderfully offbeat Japanese Xbox game coming to the States via Metro3D, or a misguided sequel to the Oscar-winning Damon/Affleck vehicle? You decide!

Spiffy:

Much more to the gameplay than mindless dino-blasting; 65 characters max.

Iffy:

Awkward controls; Janglish dialogue; user-unfriendly tutorial.

There was a time when I believed that no one would ever ask a question like, "So what's this Dinosaur Hunting all about?" But I just finishing reading through actsofgord.com, and now I know better. So, the answer: Dinosaur Hunting is a game in which you're hunting dinosaurs.

Okay, okay, maybe there's a little more to it than that. As explained by the game's prologue, dinosaurs are alive and well, and roaming the highlands of a section of the Amazonian interior. The highlands are protected from the outside world by a barricade of towering cliffs, which were created by a fortuitous tectonic shift. Alas, the highlands have begun showing signs of volcanic activity -- a.k.a. Mother Nature's eviction notice.

This tragic situation prompts a benevolent rich dude named Lord Andrew to create the "Ark Foundation," an international consortium charged with rescuing the Amazonian thunder-lizards by shooting them full of industrial strength narcotics and transporting them to a lava-free environment. There was a time when I would have called this a very silly premise, but after playing Dino Crisis 3, I find it perfectly reasonable.

(All of this, incidentally, takes place in the year 1913, which is quite confusing because the protagonist is equipped with a radio headset and flash grenades, among other modern technology. This game must take place on an alternate-reality Earth -- maybe the same one as Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.)

You play the part of Malone Stein, famed dinosaur hunter. According to Metro3D's support materials, Malone is a Leo who enjoys stargazing, guns, and smoked trout. Sounds like a real Renaissance man! Malone is accompanied on the hunt by his canine companion, Argo, and one of this game's simplest pleasures is to watch the happy little mutt bound across the screen, frolicking with the very same carnivores that are trying to rip your throat out.

As you proceed through each of the game's ten missions, you deepen the plot -- derived from Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel The Lost World -- and unlock an additional four hunters in the consortium, both male and female. You can also take on any mission you've completed in an "Open Hunt" mode.

Unionized dinosaurs are always sleeping on the job.

You start each mission at a base camp, with a primary objective (i.e., hunt a particular type of dino), a host of secondary targets, a sketchy map of the area that charts your explorations, and a time limit. The first mission, for example, gives you three in-game hours to bring down a stegosaurus, which equates to roughly 90 minutes of real-time. You can return to the base camp at any time to purchase supplies (healing items, extra ammo) and save your progress.